Stephen Colbert "campaigns" in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Television comedian Stephen Colbert took his political shtick down south on Friday, staging a mock campaign rally in South Carolina, the site of the next Republican presidential primary.

Colbert, who grew up in South Carolina, held a bogus rally on the grounds of the College of Charleston, and urged fans to vote for former Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who also spoke at the rally.

Cain suspended his campaign in December amid allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity, but he remains on the ballot for Saturday's South Carolina primary.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I have believed in the message of Herman Cain for several days now," the Charleston native told the crowd. "I would want you to vote for Herman Cain because Herman Cain is me."

Part of Colbert's fun makes a serious point about the growth of new Super PAC funding organizations that are spending huge amounts on attack ads on candidates. Political action committees, or PACs, are groups with great clout in U.S. politics that are legally separate from candidates. A Supreme Court ruling in 2010 allows corporations and unions to raise unlimited funds to buy ads that encourage or discourage the election of specific candidates.

"Faced with this tragic lack of corporate influence in our government, five courageous, unelected justices of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the constitutional right to spend unlimited money in political speech," Colbert said.

He was backed by a gospel choir that occasionally chimed in, singing, "Corporations are people," a phrase made famous by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.

A crowd, comprised mostly of college students, stood in line for up to four hours to get into the event. They held signs that said "Get on the Cain Train" and "Control the bear population" and included a couple of animal rights activists dressed in pig costumes.

"Stephen Colbert make politics more accessible. He makes things real," said Catherine Mueller, 18 of Dallas, Texas.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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South Africa cheers Mandela's 93rd birthday with a song (AFP)

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Millions of South African schoolchildren sang happy birthday to Nelson Mandela as he turned 93 Monday, while politicians and ordinary citizens did charity work to support his call to do good.

For the third year, at the request of his charitable foundation, July 18 is observed as Mandela Day, recognised by the United Nations as a global call to volunteer for good causes for 67 minutes -- representing each year of Mandela's life in active politics.

The nation's 12.5 million schoolchildren sang "Happy Birthday" before starting class Monday, with television and radio stations urging the nation to join in the special rendition of the song, given an African twist by a local composer.

"He must relax and must not get sick. He must live long," said 10-year-old Kabelo Masemola, whose Johannesburg school suspended extra-curriculars for the week so the students can do volunteer work instead.

Tributes also came from world leaders, with British Prime Minister David Cameron saluting Mandela's legacy during his visit to South Africa on Monday.

"President Mandela is an inspiration to the world, and as we celebrate his birthday and look back at just how far South Africa has come, so I believe we can look forward with confidence to an even better future for South Africa and her people," Cameron said.

US President Barack Obama hailed Mandela as "a beacon for the global community, and for all who work for democracy, justice and reconciliation."

"Mandela's legacy exemplifies wisdom, strength and grace, and on the anniversary of his birth we salute the example of his life," he said.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who like Mandela has won the Nobel Peace Prize, said he had sent good wishes to Mandela and his wife Graca Machel, as the couple is also celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary.

"On behalf of The Elders, I sent him an email because it's also their wedding anniversary," Tutu told reporters.

Tutu and Machel both belong to The Elders, a group of global statesmen.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to observe Mandela's call to carry out volunteer work.

"Everybody remembers and, indeed, needs an inspirational figure who has played a signal role in their lives. Nelson Mandela has been that role model for countless people around the world," Ban said.

Mandela spent his birthday with his family at his childhood village Qunu in the Eastern Cape province. Pictures released by his foundation showed him gathered with his family around an enormous birthday cake.

Later in the day, President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela in Qunu and showed him a model of a bridge to be built nearby.

His grandson, chief Mandla Mandela said the family would give blankets to elderly people around his birthplace of Mvezo.

"We'll be ensuring that at least our elderly citizens are looked after and taken better care of, but we are also having kids from the school in Mvezo that will be cleaning the community because we want to ensure that we preserve our area," he told national broadcaster SABC.

Similar activities were underway around the country, as South Africans cleaned and painted schools, orphanages and clinics, while others donated food, clothes, books and toys to charity.

Increasingly frail with age, Mandela was last seen in public just before his 92nd birthday, when he and Machel made an appearance at the football World Cup final in Johannesburg.

As South Africa's first black president, Mandela is revered for having ushered in democracy and for his personal sacrifices in fighting the apartheid regime.

On his release in 1990, he led negotiations that paved the way to elections in 1994. He used his warmth, dignity and self-deprecating humour to help heal racial divisions and opened a process of reconciliation.

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Oprah receives South African honorary doctorate (AP)

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa – Oprah Winfrey accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university infamous for troubled race relations, saying Friday the institution had turned an ugly experience into a model for confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.

Winfrey came to a school where five years ago, four white students made a video humiliating black housekeeping staff — they are shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine — and expressing opposition to integrating the historically white University of the Free State. Jonathan Jansen, who in 2009 became the university's first black rector, called for the four to be forgiven and rehabilitated.

Jansen withstood accusations he was conceding too much to racists as he led the university, the students and the cleaners in a closely watched discussion of the role forgiveness could play in post-apartheid South Africa. In a campus ceremony earlier this year, the students' public apology was accepted by the cleaners.

After receiving her honorary education doctorate Friday, Winfrey called five cleaners to the stage and pronounced them heroes.

"What has happened here at Free State in terms of racial reconciliation, of peace, of harmony, of one heart understanding and opening itself to another heart is nothing short of a miracle," she said. "It is truly what the new South Africa is all about."

Winfrey said she had approached Jansen after reading about his work, and accepted an invitation to come to speak to students. University officials decided to make it a grand event.

A roar from hundreds of people gathered outside first alerted those inside the university auditorium that Winfrey was about to enter for a ceremony for one that offered as much pomp, circumstance, song and dance as a full class's graduation. She threw her arms out with joy when told she was now a member of the university family — a "Kovsie." Other moments moved her to tears.

She kneeled on a padded stool to have her degree bestowed, flashing red stiletto heels to the cheering audience of all races.

The event brought international media to normally quiet Bloemfontein, the farming center where the century-old, 31,000-student university is based.

Susan Mshumpela, a 37-year-old Bloemfontein native, came to the ceremony proudly dressed in the black robes she wore when she accepted her MBA from Free State last year. Mshumpela, operations manager for an agency that helps small businesses, said she hoped Winfrey's visit would give her alma mater a chance to tell the world about its strengths.

"The eyes of the world are here," she said. "I don't think a person of her stature could just accept an honorary degree from just any university. She would want to be associated with a university of stature."

Nadipha Jacobs, a black student, says the university is growing more tolerant.

"In many ways, I feel the university and its people have grown," said Jacobs, who started as an undergraduate in 1996 and now is a graduate student specializing in development studies.

Chantell De Reuck, a white graduate student strolling across campus Friday with her friend Jacobs, said the divides that are healing weren't just along racial lines. When she arrived as an undergraduate in 1999, she was among only six English-speaking students in a dorm dominated by Afrikaners, descendants of early Dutch settlers who speak Afrikaans. The English students stuck together then. Not now, De Reuck said.

De Reuck said black and white students at the university can connect to Winfrey's personal story of early years of struggle and abuse, and find inspiration in her current success.

A 4,500-seat auditorium was full for Winfrey's ceremony. Tickets were sold for 10 rand (about $1), most of that covering computer sales processing fees. Local reporters said hawkers selling fake tickets on Bloemfontein streets didn't increase the price. University officials warned those with fake tickets would not be admitted.

Winfrey is a frequent visitor to South Africa, where she opened a school in 2007 dedicated to giving bright young women of all races opportunities in a society where they are handicapped by conservative traditions as well as the poor schools that are a legacy of apartheid.

Her school's first class just graduated, overcoming early setbacks that included a scandal over a dormitory supervisor accused of trying to kiss and fondle students. The supervisor was acquitted of sexual assault charges last year.

In a passage that drew cheers from the audience Friday, the citation accompanying Winfrey's honorary doctorate, the 152nd awarded by the university, said Winfrey "has truly become a South African.

"She did so because she believed that there was important work to be done here, and she wanted to be part of what Nelson Mandela and others had begun."

Previous recipients of Free State honorary degrees include anti-apartheid icons Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Winfrey's visit overlapped with that of another famous Chicagoan — Michelle Obama, wife of the U.S. president. The two had dinner together on Tuesday in Johannesburg.

___

Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP

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Mandela hails Sisulu as 'mother' of South Africa's people (AFP)

SOWETO, South Africa (AFP) – Nelson Mandela praised anti-apartheid heroine Albertina Sisulu as "the mother of all our people", as political leaders and thousands of ordinary South Africans mourned her death.

President Jacob Zuma, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Zambian independence leader Kenneth Kaunda and Mandela's wife Graca Machel were among the 3,000 people at Sisulu's funeral in an historic Soweto football stadium.

Notably absent was Mandela himself, who at 92 is increasingly frail and rarely appears in public. He delivered his condolences in a message read by Machel, calling Sisulu "one of the greatest South Africans".

Albertina Sisulu died on June 2 at her Johannesburg home at the age of 92. Her husband Walter was Mandela's political mentor, and their decades of marriage endured endless harassment by apartheid authorities to stand as one of South Africa's great love stories.

After the funeral service, she was buried in a nearby cemetery in a plot next to her husband, who died in her arms in 2003. The four-hour funeral and the burial that followed were broadcast live on television.

Albertina Sisulu was one of Mandela's last surviving contemporaries, a fact he acknowledged with obvious grief in his statement.

"The years have taken the toll as one by one friends and comrades passed on. Every time it seems as part of oneself is being cut off," he said. "None of those cuts could have been more painful than the loss of this dear friend, you, my beloved sister."

"You provided leadership and exercised power with quiet dignity. Through your selflessness and dedication, through your moral authority and sincere humanity, during and after the struggle, you rightly earned to be the mother of all our people," Mandela said.

His statement was greeted with rapturous applause, singing and dancing in the crowd, which lasted for several minutes before the service returned to the more solemn proceedings marked by hymns and prayer.

Zuma took the podium, singing the anti-apartheid hymn "Thina Sizwe", before hailing her as a model of integrity in the face of persecution.

"One of the most steadfast, dignified and disciplined pillars of our struggle has fallen, an era has ended, and the nation is devastated," Zuma said.

"Despite the persecution, Mama Sisulu remained an epitome of grace, dignity and discipline. She did not let bitterness engulf her heart. She remained focused on the mission of achieving freedom and justice," Zuma said.

Government provided 500 buses and seven trains to ferry people to Orlando Stadium, a landmark that was often a focal point in the apartheid struggle but was recently modernised for the football World Cup.

During her life, Sisulu was hounded by the apartheid authorities, repeatedly jailed, and "banned" -- a penalty that limited her movements and her visitors.

But she lived to experience the end of white-minority rule, serving one term in the new non-racial parliament herself and seeing her children rise to top positions in government.

Her daughter Lindiwe is defence minister, her son Max is the speaker of the National Assembly, and another daughter Beryl is ambassador to Norway.

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South Africa's infirm Mandela to vote at home (AFP)

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa's aged ex-president Nelson Mandela will vote at home Monday for this week's local elections, the voting authority announced, in a special arrangement for the infirm.

The iconic 92-year-old anti-apartheid hero, South Africa's first black president, is under home-based care after being hospitalised for two days in January for an acute respiratory infection.

"He is one of the people who will casting special votes today," Independent Election Commission spokeswoman Kate Bapela said.

The country votes on Wednesday in local elections in which service delivery has become a hot issue, with frustration towards the ruling African National Congress building over inadequate power, water and housing.

The ANC, which has dominated South African politics since the end of apartheid in 1994, is nonetheless expected to sweep the elections.

Mandela has not been seen in public since he was discharged from hospital but information released in February said he was in stable condition.

Monday's special vote is reserved for the "physically infirm or disabled" and people performing critical services like the police, the commission said.

Mandela was elected the country's first black president in South Africa's first all-race vote in 1994 and served one term before stepping down in 1999.

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Republican Santorum wins South Carolina straw poll (Reuters)

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) – Republican Rick Santorum got credit for showing up and won a 2012 presidential straw poll of party activists in the crucial early voting state of South Carolina, organizers said on Saturday.

Santorum, a conservative from Pennsylvania, was the only presidential candidate to attend the South Carolina party's annual dinner on Friday night. He won 150 out of 408 votes cast in the presidential preference poll of dinner attendees.

That trounced second-place finisher Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who received 61 votes. In third place was former pizza executive Herman Cain with 44 votes.

Three others finished with more than 20 votes -- real estate tycoon Donald Trump with 29, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has repeatedly said he will not run, with 22 and U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann with 22.

Many South Carolina Republicans were annoyed that the party's highest profile candidates skipped the first 2012 Republican presidential debate they sponsored on Thursday. It was attended by five lesser known candidates.

Those five -- Santorum, Cain, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson -- were invited to speak at the dinner, but only Santorum showed up.

"To those who didn't come, you get a pass this time but you sure as hell better come next time," Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said at the dinner.

Votes in the poll were cast for a total of 16 different potential candidates in a slow-starting and unsettled Republican nominating race that has not produced a clear front-runner.

The other candidates to register in double-digits in the poll were former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 16 and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels with 15.

Others who tallied single-digit totals included Paul with 8, Pawlenty with 7, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin with 6 and former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsmann with 4.

(Reporting by John Whitesides; Editing by Chris Wilson)

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Ladysmith Black Mambazo Sustain South Africa's Voice Through Music

You know them from 'The Lion King' soundtrack, but Nelson Mandela once called them "South Africa's cultural ambassadors." Since then, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has continued to take Mandela's message of peace and spread it around the world.

For an a cappella group that began in 1973 and won three Grammys, Ladysmith's voice is still resilient and timeless. Original member Albert Mazibuko tells PopEater the group strives to sing to more generations to come, especially with new album 'Songs from a Zulu Farm' on the way.

What did it mean to you when Nelson Mandela referred to you as cultural ambassadors of your nation?
This was the highest honor for us. To be singled out by Nelson Mandela told us that we needed to look at ourselves, as a group, differently. We truly represented our nation and had to continuously understand that responsibility.

What kind of responses do you see while touring internationally? Was it always open arms, or was it hard to translate a South African sound?
It seemed, and still seems, that people truly open their arms and minds to what we do. People understand we represent our nation and culture and want to share this with everyone. People seem to want to embrace what we offer.

Do you see the group as more about music or sending a message, acting as teachers?
That is an interesting question. I think the message is most important, but we use the music to deliver the message. And in doing so we want to be teachers. It's really all as one -- very intertwined for us. I guess we see ourselves as teachers bringing a message through our singing.

Watch a live performance by Ladysmith Black Mambazo:

How's the progress with the Mambazo Academy? Is it completely built yet?
Sadly, the progress is very slow. There are so many things changing in South Africa and only a little bit of money to go around. We do spend most of our spare time, when we are home, teaching the young ones about the culture and its history. But doing so in an organized academy has not occurred.

You've collaborated with so many notable musicians like Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon. What's your best memory from those experiences?
Yes, we have been honored to be asked by so many famous and important people, so to pick just one out is very difficult. Of course the Paul Simon memory is the most important for us. We recently worked with Josh Groban, and I think this was different because he is of a new generation, and when we met him he showed that he really loved what we do. So knowing our singing has affected a new generation of artists was touching.

You've also provided music for so many films. Do you find it surreal that moviegoers see these movies and hear your voice without knowing it?
I've met people who say, "I saw this movie and it sounded like the filmmakers copied your sound for the film," and it turns out it was us. So it is funny to see people's reactions when they learn that what they heard was actually us.

The group has shifted over the years. Which years had the best ensemble?
Well, the group we are now has been pretty steady since 1993. Since then we lost a couple of members, but 1993 was important to us. That is when our leader, Joseph Shabalala, had three of his sons join the group. This is the next generation of Mambazo. So, after us older fellas move along they will carry on for many years. Joseph has said the group is more than one or two people. It's a cultural entity that should continue on for decades.

Do you compare your success at all to that of Buena Vista Social Club? If so, what do you think of them?
I've heard of that group but I do not know their music. I think there is a community of cultural groups that should continue on for many years. They are truly one of them. I know the Chieftans too. And the Blind Boys of Alabama. I'm glad to know all of these groups have success.

Is there any kind of new music today that you like? American pop music, perhaps?
It seems a new sound or style comes along every few years, and it all has something interesting to say. I like hearing where music goes, how it changes, the sounds and styles. I have to say I most enjoy simple singing. I don't like when they use machines to manipulate voices. Pure vocal is the most beautiful sound to listen to, I feel.

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